Helpful Score: 4
I prefered some of his other books better but this one puts a new twist on the snow white story. As a wicked step mother myself, I appreciated the story and could realte to the characters.
Helpful Score: 3
I couldn't put Wicked down, and I enjoyed Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, but I just couldn't get into this one.
Helpful Score: 2
This is the least of Gregory Maguire's compelling retellings and refashionings of classic fairy tales, but it is nevertheless intriguing and actually original. Set in 1500s Italy, the story tells the familiar tale of Snow White, but with so many historical and fantasy elements as to make it a near-new tale. Bianca de Nevada is our Snow White in this story, and the wicked stepmother is none other than the infamous Lucrezia Borgia of the equally infamous Borgia family. It is clever the way Maguire, a fantastic writer, weaves the familiar elements of the tale into his own weird historical/fantasy hybrid creation, but too often the narrative feels too loose and too little. I never fully understood the characters, and the plot feels a little thin, but it's still worth reading if only for the most unique representation of the seven - or is it eight? - dwarves I have ever encountered in my entire life. I won't spoil anything here, but suffice it to say it's bracingly and wonderfully inventive.
Helpful Score: 1
I thought that this was a wonderful retelling of the more tradition version we've been used to reading. The author took some interesting twists with his that are a great example of his creativity when it comes to weaving a new story out of an old favorite. I found it a quick read and I had a hard time putting it down because the writing style was simplistic yet beautiful at the same time.
